Product Information

Format: DRM Protected ePubVendor: Thomas NelsonPublication Date: 2012

ISBN: 9781595554451ISBN-13: 9781595554451

Publisher's Description

The Essential Guide for Beating Temptation

Falling for temptation isnt inevitable. We dont have to lose the fight. In fact, we can win if we understand the root of the problem and what Christians have done from the beginning to beat it. Our Favorite Sins shines a much-needed light in our lives dark corners and reveals the time-tested methods for getting victory over sin.

Are you tyrannized by your own desires?

If you are breathing, your answer is probably yes.

The question is: What are you going to do about it?

With more than thirty years of pastoral experience, Todd D. Hunter knows that most peoplehimself includedstruggle every day with temptation. All too often, we fail and fall, and some of us are at our wits end, utterly defeated. What do we do to get a grip on the sin in our life and live like God wants?

Theres good news: despite all our failures and shameful "moments after," there really is a way out, a way forward, and a way that draws us closer to the life that God desires for us.

In Our Favorite Sins, Hunter cracks open the problem of temptation and points to practical, biblically based, time-tested solutions. First revealing the role played by our disordered desires, Hunter shows how different temptations trip us up and how we can resist and overcome them, even if weve fallen prey to them for decades. Victory starts with reordering our desires, and the church has given us the tools for the job. Hunter shows us how to use them and start beating the temptations that so often beat us.

Informed by exclusive research from the Barna Group, Our Favorite Sins offers a view that works for any believer wherever they are and no matter how big the battle theyre fighting.

Author Bio

Todd Hunter is a bishop for The Anglican Mission in the Americas and is the founding pastor of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Costa Mesa, CA. He is an adjunct professor at several seminaries and the author of Christianity Beyond Belief , Giving Churcha Second Chance , The Outsider Interviews , and The Accidental Anglican . Todd is also the founding director of Churches for the Sake of Others, a West Coast church planting initiative, and a past president of Alpha USA and the Association of Vineyard Churches. Todd also founded Three is Enough , a small-group movement that makes spiritual formation doable.

Our Favorite Sins, the title grabbed my attention because who really categorizes their sins by â€˜favorite' or â€˜least favorite'. This book helps you to see sin for what it is and then gives small doable steps for how you can walk away from those â€˜favorite sins' that we just can't help ourselves from doing.

â€˜Sin is basically stupid and repulsive. But when you are in its snare - few aren't - you can't see that'. Hunter explains that the core to any sin is disordered desires. He does an excellent job explaining this and the battle we all face of doing what we want vs. what we know we should do. Interestingly enough he doesn't cover â€˜the seven deadly sins' but rather what we face as daily struggles today, such as anxiety, procrastination, overeating and social media to name a few. Hunter covers why we give in to temptation but also gives you the â€˜how- to' to change those desires.

I'll admit it took me several months to read this book, not because I didn't want to read it but because it caused me to evaluate each area of my life with a desire for real life change. Sin robs us from clarity and if we want to be more like Christ then we need clarity and focus in our lives, not distractions and temptations. Temptations do not come from God but from within ourselves, and we have choices to make.

This is not an easy read but well worth the effort if you're looking to become more like Christ and work through the tough stuff in your life.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneezeÂ®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255

It took me a bit to get into this book. I will admit I have started it several times and never made it far. I pretty much had the first 4 pages memorized. This time I started on page 4 (ok bottom of page 3) and went on from there. To sit down and read about things you know in your head you are doing "wrong" is a bit tough. The author starts off talking about temptations and moves on covering many topics such as desires, and whether they are from God or not. Anxiety and worry, God tells us not to be anxious about anything (Phil 4:6) Procrastinating, kinda like I have done with this book. We all have "good" reasons to not have done what we know we should. He moves on to talk about,eating, media, laziness and so much more.

With all the topics he covers he explains with scripture how to deal with these different items. These different sins. He uses his own life experiences to help explain situations.

Once you start reading it is well written and helpful in so many ways. He lays it out nice and clear, in a way that you don't need to feel guilty for what you have been doing wrong but you feel hope that you can do better.

Our Favorite Sins (and how we can quit), written by Todd Hunter (Anglican Bishop/Pastor/Professor) provides valuable insight into the sins that are most often committed within the life of the believer. In addition to providing information on said "sins", Hunter also sets out to give his readers tips on how these pitfalls can be avoided or beaten altogether.

Firstly, it must be said that the book seems to be very well researched and written. Hunter clearly has lots of experience in dealing with sin (both as a person in ministry and a human being, himself). There is a good flow to the topics and how they are presented, the chapters are easy to follow and the facts are laid out and plain for the reader to see and digest. In this sense, the book is a great success.

However, as I read the book, I couldn't help but feel as though Mr. Hunter has taken a part of our faith and formed it into some kind of an equation; this is sin, these are specific types of sin, and this is how you quit it_It seems to me that there is more to it than that, and even though Hunter would agree, he spends very little time focusing on that fact.

In the end, I have to give this book partial marks. Todd Hunter, within Our Favorite Sins, creates a good, albeit partial resource

This book was sent to me by Booksneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

This book is one that I believe any person trying to deal with sin and temptation should read. It provides the reader with a thoughtful reflection upon sin and what it reveals about oneself and their battle with sin.

One of the key things that Hunter points out is at issue within a person as they deal with sin and temptation is the idea and issue of disordered desires. He states "Beating temptation requires struggle because it always involved sorting out rightly ordered desires for good and godly things from our disordered desires for wrong things" (pg. 3). This is one of the things i think many people don't realize about their struggle with sin. We think it is just something that we can stop, but behind each struggle of sin is a desire and we need to find ways to correctly and rightly fulfill those desires. Hunter points out that this is not an easy battle but something that does take work and energy.

So often we get beaten down in our spiritual journey because we think that it should be easier than it turns out to be. He walks through providing the reader with insight into this struggle and battle and gives hope to the reader that they will be able to deal with their temptation with God's help and a right understanding of it.

The book provides both a theological and practical insight into this issue that affects all of mankind in one way or anther. This book is one that I think everyone should take a look at and glean some insight and application steps that they can apply to their own lives.